Jimmy had asked for a sweet iced tea when they’d ordered their sandwiches. Rurik wanted a six-pack from the convenience store. The man loved his beer, and he apparently had a great tolerance for it, because he didn’t seem to be at all affected by the six-pack he’d consumed earlier.
Naturally, people stared: not at Jimmy, but at Rurik. The clerk behind the front counter, where he paid for the gas and beer, was especially concerned, darting constant looks at Rurik. The guy looked as if he were about to dial 911. Jimmy leaned slightly forward and offered an explanation.
“My cousin is posing for some video game artwork and animation this evening, and he likes to get into character beforehand. I hope he’s not freaking people out.”
“Well, you can hardly expect to walk into a store with a sword and not freak people out a little bit,” the cashier said with a less-than-brilliant smile. He paused. “What video game?”
“We can’t say,” Jimmy answered in a lowered voice. “It’s all hush-hush right now. But you’ll recognize it when the ads come out, since you’ve seen my cousin in costume.”
The cashier bought the story, and relaxed a bit more. “Hey, you,” he called, looking past Jimmy’s shoulder. “What’s your name? You know, in case you get famous or something.”
“I am Rurik.” As always the Warrior spoke with an accent.
The cashier’s smile faded. “Yeah, yeah, stay in character, asshole.”
Jimmy showed his ID, paid, handed Rurik the six-pack, stepped outside, and took a deep breath. Next time they had to stop he was going to leave Rurik in the car. The Warrior would just have to piss on the side of the road or into an empty beer can until they got to D.C. Jimmy thought he’d handled himself okay so far, but he wasn’t an actor or an accomplished liar and he really couldn’t take much more of this. His heart was beating a mile a minute.
He skidded to a stop. A woman dressed in long pants, a long-sleeved T-shirt, gloves, a floppy-brimmed hat, and a scarf leaned casually against the passenger side of the car. She was definitely not dressed for a southern summer afternoon. Despite all the garb she had on, she was a looker. She was so good-looking, and built like a brick shit house, that it took him a minute to register that she was leaning against his car, as if she were waiting for them. He didn’t know her, so that gave him a start, like he needed any more surprises today.
The woman lifted her head sightly, revealing a lush mouth that curved in a smile as she glanced past him. Her attention settled on Rurik, and stayed there. “Hey there, sugar,” she purred.
Rurik dropped his six-pack. Two of the cans burst open, spewing beer in an arc as the Warrior drew his sword. For a split second Jimmy wondered what the hell he was doing, and then the woman sprang toward the Warrior, godawmighty, almost flying. Her movement was too big to be normal, and dammit all, those were fangs.
Jimmy dropped the sack of sandwiches and his Styrofoam cup of iced tea, and ran. He punched the button on his keychain remote to unlock the doors, then yanked the rear driver’s side door open and dove into the backseat. He grabbed the shotgun, backed out of the car with it cradled in his hands. He could barely think. Oh shit, oh shit. That was pretty much all his brain was capable of. His hands shook, and his heart pounded so hard he could feel it hammering against his chest.
For one blessed moment he thought that maybe he wouldn’t need the shotgun. Without hesitating, Rurik ran the vampire through with his sword. Jimmy blew out a breath of relief, one that turned to a strangled cry when the sword didn’t even slow her down. She backed away, leaving the bloodstained blade behind, and danced to the side, away from the sword, to swing out with a balled hand. An unbelievably powerful blow connected with Rurik’s jaw and sent him to the ground. He landed on his back, hit his head on the concrete. His sword fell out of his hand and went clattering across the parking lot.
The vampire snarled like a wild animal, and in the shade of her hat brim Jimmy saw them again. Fangs.
She pressed one small foot, clad in a white tennis shoe, on Rurik’s chest. “I’ve never tasted warrior blood before. Bet I get a charge out of it, sugar.”
Rurik’s eyes were still dazed, but he turned his head toward Jimmy. “She killed your father. Go for the heart or head.”
The vampire smiled. “If it was dark I’d take you both on at the same time, but I’m not at my best during the daytime. Guess this’ll have to do.” For a moment she looked into Jimmy’s eyes, and everything kind of went away. He felt a strange tingle at the center of his forehead and a chill down his spine, and for a second or two he felt completely disconnected and numb. The vampire dismissed him and dropped down like an animal to grasp Rurik’s hair in one hand, jerking his head back as she opened her mouth and exposed her fangs, poised to tear out his throat.
Jimmy pumped the shotgun and fired. He couldn’t get her heart from this angle, not without hitting Rurik, too, so he aimed for the head. And missed. It had been a long time since he’d handled any kind of weapon. The shot grazed the vampire’s hat, knocking it off.
She howled as the sunlight hit her face, automatically lifting her free arm to shield herself from the sun. “I told you to stay right where you were,” she snarled at him. “Damn sunlight. I can’t even glamour properly.”
Jimmy pumped the shotgun again and moved closer. Rurik had insisted that he load the shotgun after they’d purchased it, thank God, but Jimmy hadn’t believed he’d need to defend himself so soon, so he hadn’t put one in the chamber, for safety’s sake; that meant he just had this one last shot, rather than the maximum three he could have had. This one had to count; he didn’t think the vampire would give him time to grab a couple of shells from the car and reload. She jumped up to face him, her movements unnaturally smooth and quick.
Rurik had shaken off the knock on his head; as soon as she released her hold on him, he moved fast, grabbed the vampire’s legs, and literally lifted her high in the air. Damn if she didn’t look like an old-fashioned car-hood ornament, or a wooden woman on the front of a pirate ship, with her back arched and her breasts thrust forward. She hung there, high in the air, and Jimmy knew he’d never again have this chance. He didn’t hesitate; he aimed for the heart and fired.
This time, he didn’t miss. The blast hit her in the middle of her chest, getting the heart and a lot of other flesh. Rurik released his hold and the vampire dropped like a rock, splatting hard on the pavement just a few feet in front of Jimmy. She took a deep breath, screamed with raw fury, and lifted her head. Her cheek had taken a beating when she’d slammed into the ground, and her clothes were soaked in her own blood, but she was still alive, and fuck, she was getting up!
“You must destroy the heart or the head, not simply damage it,” Rurik said as he rose to his feet and reached for his sword in one smooth motion. “Remember that,” he added calmly as the damaged vampire rose from the ground, moving much more slowly and clumsily than she had before. Rurik lifted his sword and swung it with an incredible strength, neatly severing the vampire’s head. Her head spun away, screaming one last time. Her once-lovely face blistered in the sunlight, then her entire body—both parts—turned to dust.
Rurik leaned down and picked up the vampire’s scarf, wiped his sword with it, and returned the blade to its scabbard. “Thank you for coming to my defense,” he said without emotion.
Holy shit, now what did they do? Jimmy looked toward the convenience store, where several faces were all but pressed to the glass. The clerk was jabbering full-speed into his cell phone. “Well, fuck,” he said, as he started walking back to the convenience store. When he was almost there, he decided it really wasn’t a good idea to walk into a crowded store with a shotgun, whether he had any ammo left or not. He turned around, watched as Rurik wiped some blood from his face, then picked up the sack of sandwiches and the unexploded cans of his six-pack.
He couldn’t believe the guy still wanted to eat. As far as he was concerned, he never wanted to see a barbecue sandwich again for the rest of his life. The chop
ped meat reminded him too much of how the vampire had looked when he’d shot out part of her chest.
“Get in the car,” he said to Rurik as he put the shotgun in the backseat and walked back to the convenience store. He opened the door, plastered a smile on his face as he stuck his head inside. “Please tell me you didn’t see the cameras. We wanted your expressions to be genuine. Hope we didn’t scare anyone too bad. Wasn’t that great? The producer is going to be here in just a few minutes. He’ll want signed permissions from all of you, if you want your likenesses to appear in the video game.” He wondered if any of them could see past the act, if maybe those closest could hear his heart hammering.
“Where’s the woman’s body?” one lady shouted hysterically. “Oh my God, she just exploded!”
“It’s all special effects these days,” Jimmy said, keeping that idiotic grin in place.
“I saw …” a man began, but stopped and didn’t say anything else. What could he say? There was no body, just a limp pile of clothes and some ash. And who in their right mind would believe for a moment that what they’d witnessed was real? He had a hard time believing it himself.
The clerk spoke into the phone, “Never mind,” and disconnected his call to turn his attention to Jimmy. “I’m not giving any permission without some cash upfront.”
“Sure,” Jimmy said, trying to sound reasonable when what he wanted to do was turn and run like hell. If he made it to D.C. without having a heart attack, it would be a miracle. “I don’t have the power to make any deals on my own, but the producer will be here in ten minutes, tops. My cousin and I have to get out of here so we can make the next shot before we lose the light. It’s, like, way down the road, so we’ve gotta run.” He gave a wave, turned, and stepped over what was left of the vampire, which wasn’t much: some bloody clothes, a partially shredded hat, and dust. The dust was scattering in the summer breeze.
Sunlight flashed on something metallic, catching his eye. The edge of a cell phone stuck about an inch out of a bloody pocket. Without thinking he leaned down and carefully plucked the dust-covered, bloodstained phone from the pocket. With it caught between two fingers, Jimmy gratefully plopped into the driver’s seat and dropped the phone in the console between the front seats.
Rurik indicated the cell. “Why did you take that?”
“This is war, right? One of the aspects of war is the collection of information. Want to know who that freak’s been talking to? This is how we find out.” If he could ever bring himself to touch the damn thing, that is.
Jimmy glanced at his passenger. Rurik hadn’t escaped the skirmish unscathed. His jaw was red, and would probably be bruised before too much longer. The vampire had scratched his throat when she’d grabbed it, though a scratch was far from the fatal wound she’d obviously planned to inflict. The plain brown shirt was splattered with blood. His clothes weren’t soaked, not like the vampire’s had been, and it was difficult to tell that those streaks were actually red against that dark brown, but still … gross. There was a lot of blood loss involved in shotgun blasts and severing a head. Who knew?
As he cranked the engine, Rurik nodded curtly. “You are very clever, but you are not skilled enough with a shotgun to be of much use in a battle with vampires.”
Jimmy’s first thought was Thank God, maybe I’ll get out of this alive after all.
And then Rurik continued. “We must get you a proper sword.”
It was after dark when they checked out of the hotel. They’d checked in too early and left too early, and had ended up paying for two days when they hadn’t even been there twenty-four hours. It didn’t seem fair to Chloe, but in the scheme of things an inflated hotel bill wasn’t worth obsessing over. She had more important things to obsess about.
Luca drove directly to a rental car lot, dropped off the minivan, and leased a gray sedan that looked pretty much like every other car they’d passed on the road. It was completely forgettable, which was probably why he’d chosen it. For a moment, Chloe wondered if he’d glamoured the girl behind the desk, or made some kind of excuse for trading in a perfectly good van that had been rented just last night. But that thought was quickly followed by a “duh.” No explanations or vampire tricks were necessary when he wasn’t going to be remembered.
“Where to now?” she asked as he pulled onto the road, breathing a sigh of relief when she realized that he was driving away from the rebel vampire headquarters.
Luca had been quiet since she’d awakened to find him all but ready to go. He’d given her time to take a shower, but had made it clear that he was in a hurry. He was driven, and thanks to their bonding she knew how strong that drive was. Now he glanced at her and said, “We have a stop to make, before we attack.”
So much for her relief. “Attack? Just the two of us?”
“I hope not. While you were sleeping I made a few calls, pulled in some friends. They’re trustworthy.”
Chloe gulped. Great. Her life—heck, the fate of the world—was in the hands of trustworthy vampires. “We can’t … wait a few days to see who shows up? Maybe give it some thinking time and come up with a battle plan?”
“No, we have to do it now,” Luca said, his voice emotionless, but she could feel his agitation. That wasn’t like him. Luca was normally icy calm.
“Why?”
He hesitated a moment, then his jaw hardened. “I don’t know. I’ve learned to trust my gut instincts over the years, and my gut is telling me that we can’t wait.”
Okay. Battle time, then. That changed things. She didn’t want to be separated from him, but she was practical enough to know that in a fight she’d be more of a hindrance than an ally. She’d distract Luca, take his mind away from the enemy. He’d be so focused on protecting her, he might make a mistake—and end up paying for that mistake with his life. She couldn’t bear it if that happened, if she lost him because he was focused on her instead of on what he was doing.
“Take me home,” she said, her voice smaller than she’d intended.
“No.”
“Think about it,” she pleaded. “I’m safe there. No vampire can come into my home uninvited. I know you’re worried that I’ll do something foolish, but I swear, even if they bring my mother to the door I won’t go outside or invite them in.”
“Yeah, I’ll buy that,” Luca responded, rolling his eyes.
Chloe crossed her arms. “There’s no need for sarcasm.”
He drove fast, when he could. If anyone else had been behind the wheel she’d have been panicking, but if ever anyone was in control, it was him. She trusted him implicitly.
“I have to tell you something,” he said.
That didn’t sound good. A chill ran down her spine because he sounded so serious. If Luca was worried, she should definitely be worried, too.
“There’s another reason I can’t take you home and leave you there. Ahron mentioned the rebels breaking a spell. I don’t know if you realized what he was talking about or not, but the spell in question is the sanctuary spell that keeps a human’s home safe from the kindred.”
She hadn’t thought the situation could get any worse … yet there it was. Worse. “Can they do that?”
“Ahron seemed to think so, and that’s enough to concern me. They must have a witch on their side.”
Witch? What next? Werewolves and goblins? That settled it, though; she didn’t want to go home.
They crossed the Virginia state line.
The storage facility was an ordinary collection of metal units, like thousands of them all over the country. Luca had rented this space for the past twelve years. Before that, he’d leased a smaller unit in a different town, but over the years his collection had grown and he’d had to get this larger space.
He unlocked the metal door, guided Chloe inside, and flipped the light switch.
At first glance, the unit was as ordinary on the inside as it was on the outside, but the wooden crates and metal lockers that lined the walls were filled with weapons, any weapon
he might possibly need in his line of work—or for a war.
He opened one wooden crate and drew out a broadsword that was wrapped in oilcloth, to keep the blade from rusting. When he carefully unwrapped it, Chloe gasped.
“Holy cow,” she muttered. “Is that thing as sharp as it looks?”
“Yes, it is.” He could take on three unarmed vampires with his hands alone, but considering how many rebels he’d have to face tonight he’d need every advantage he could get.
He reached past another, lighter sword and grabbed the short-bladed weapon he had thought of for Chloe. He’d be with her all the way; he’d do his best to keep the rebels away from her, but it would be foolish not to arm her. He placed her sword beside his own and moved to a metal locker. For several minutes, he went from locker to locker, from shelf to shelf. For himself, he chose a modified shotgun and two high-caliber handguns, along with enough ammunition to take on an army.
Arming Chloe was a bit more complicated.
“Have you ever handled a gun?” he asked, turning to face her.
“No. I’m sorry,” she said helplessly, knowing she was a liability to him.
Too bad. A couple of shots to the heart or the brain with a powerful enough weapon would drop most vampires in their tracks, but the target was small, and even a half-inch off target meant an angry, wounded vampire was coming after you. There wasn’t time for shooting lessons; he had other weapons with which she could defend herself.
He hoped she wouldn’t need them. The only way any vampire would get to her was if he was dead.
It was a long way from Texas to D.C. by car, with an armed and still slightly bloody warrior sitting in the passenger seat, getting more impatient with every passing hour.
He drove fast but steady, eating up the miles, but Jimmy wasn’t exactly sure what they were closer to. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know any more than he already did.
The vampire’s cell phone began singing Elvis’s “Hound Dog.” He jumped, and the car swerved into the left lane, earning him an angry blast from the horn of a pickup truck.
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